"the Lord your God has chosen you
to be a people for Himself,
a special treasure above all the peoples
on the face of the earth."
Deuteronomy 7:6
I sat in my car for an hour today. Why? Because I'm a stay-at-home mom, and we do far less staying-at-home than you might think. I'm also a homeschooling mom, which sometimes doesn't mean "home-schooling" as much as it means "museum-schooling," "battlefield-schooling," "monument-schooling" and even "someone-else's-living-room-schooling" Awesome Girl and Amazing Boy are involved in a chorus, and it's held in the director's very crowded living room, so I sit in my car out front. I just love doing that. I'm in my own little world, in the shade, with my sunroof open for fresh air, studying or reading or writing. No TV; no phone ~ okay, I have my cell phone, but no one ever calls me on that phone. It's peaceful and quiet. Sometimes I play my ipod, but sometimes I just listen to birds, or the wind blowing.
Well, while I was sitting there today, a neighbor came out to do some gardening. His garage door was open as he dragged out some tools, and I noticed boxes and boxes (and boxes!) of movies. I was amazed. They looked like VHS tapes ~ did he now have a DVD player but didn't want to just dump all of these? Is he storing stuff for a friend? Is he a pack-rat? (Although, his garage was very neat, so he didn't seem like a candidate for one of those hoarding reality shows...)
But it got me to thinking about how we Americans are with our garages. While most people have at least one car in their garage, there is a ton of other stuff, too. Probably the next most common thing is Christmas decorations. Maybe camping gear, bikes or kayaks. I have a neighbor whose garage contains an airplane. Really! And a lot of us have our washer and dryer out there, too. All of that makes sense. It's a great place to keep things we're not done with, but don't need to have handy.
But let's face it, people, we also have junk out there. Clothes our kids have outgrown but we haven't taken to a charity drop-off yet. Broken tools, old paint, papers and files just in case the IRS calls. And maybe boxes and boxes of VHS tapes.
Matthew 6:19 says "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal." How many of us have seen that happen to the things we have "laid up"? I personally have seen destruction by ants (a Christmas decoration one of the kids made, that included a candy cane); destruction by heat (candles melted from being up in the rafters during the summer months); and destruction by rats (anything soft that could be used to line a nest) among other things. What have we laid up for ourselves, and how much do we value it?
Scripture has three important things to teach us about what's in storage. The first, is what we should be storing; what we should treasure. Proverbs 2:1 tells us to treasure His commands within us. Proverbs 10:14 says that wise people store up knowledge. Isaiah 33:6 tells us the fear of the Lord should be our treasure. And Psalm 119:162 tells us to rejoice at His Word.
Scripture also tells us what we should not be holding on to. Jesus told the rich young man, "Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor. Then you will have treasure in heaven." And Luke 12:34 says, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." These are reminders that it's not so much about what's in our garages, as it is about how we feel about what's in our garages...
The third thing Scripture tells us is what God keeps in His "garage". Deuteronomy 28:12 says "The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season." And in Jeremiah 51:16, "He makes lightning for the rain; and brings the wind out of His treasuries." And Job 38: "Have you entered the storehouse of snow, or seen the storehouse of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble?" Makes our old paycheck stubs and weed-eaters seem like nothing, doesn't it?
If we are have more than we need, and a place to put it, we are truly blessed. But God expects us to not put great value on that stuff. He expects us to treasure Him as He treasures us.
~ "Obey My voice and keep My covenant,
and you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people." ~
Exodus 19:5
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